Not another Brit touring the Colonies.

Madmountainman

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Hi Folks,

A few of you know i've started a 3 month tour of Western USA, Canada and Alaska, but for this that don't, i'll be duplicating my travels and prevails from Advrider on here. I'm not an experienced trip blogger, and I don't now how often i'll be able to update this thread, due to camping and power requirements, but i'll try and let you know what i'm up to as much as I can.

I'm not an expert in writing about my travels, and i'll try not to follow in Mike O's footsteps too much, avoiding too many photo's of bridges and barns. ;)

So here we go, copied and pasted over...

Hi All

I've already met a few of you in my first couple of days in the USA, but for those of you that are in the dark about me, i'm going to begin here...

I have always wanted to visit the USA and Canada, but due to joining the Fire & Rescue Service, over here in the UK, at an early age, my holiday/vacation time has been very restricted by having to work shifts, with very little in the way of time off sufficient to do a long trip.

Why not take shorter trips? I hear you say. Well, i'm on the tall side and don't fit in economy seats on aeroplanes, and have never earnt the money it takes to fly in the more expensive, roomy, seats. I have travelled though, just on our European continent and around the UK. I've been active in the GS Community since 2000 and still ride the venerable 1150 Adventure.

So, moving on. Although the Fire Service prevented me from doing a big trip, I did have the advantage of going early, which meant that i'd also retire early. So I put a 25 year savings plan in place and have bided my time since, waiting for this time to come, and here I am, at 51, ready to ride!

This is me and the next three months of my life are in that bag. My home, my bed, my kitchen, bathroom and wardrobe are all in there.



Although i've had to wait for this big ride, i've not really researched it, and have kept myself busy. Hiking, Biking, Kayaking, Caving and Mountain biking have been to the forefront of my life. The was until Christmas last year, when a friend of mine, Martk Barrington, asked if I was interested in riding Alaska. I idd a little research and the beginnings of a big trip were born.

This is Mark, just gathering our stuff together before heading over to London for our flights.



I found this website and started plotting a route to see how long we needed to get around. We may not complete the whole route, we just needed an idea of where and how long. Mark slightly complicated things, as he also wanted to incorporate a Canadian coast to coast run as part of his trip. However, i've tried to make the whole trip as flexible as possible, so i've arranged to get some mountain biking in during my first couple of weeks in the USA and will be meeting Mark later this month, where we'll be heading North, to Alaska!

 
Now, before I continue, I have read the guidelines of the big trip reports, and I know I am doing my first two weeks, here in the US, in a hire car, but that's purely been to facilitate my mountain biking. So please bear with me, i'll post a little on my first two weeks, but will get going once my GS ships in a week Sunday and the ride begins.

Some of you may remember, I did enquire if someone could offer me some storage space for my mountain bike in San Francisco, whilst I was away on the GS. I did receive a helpful response, but the chap who offered to help is very busy, so I thought it best not to trouble him and, rather fortunately, got in touch with a terrific guy named Brent, who lives in Alameda and he's been an immense help, making my first, nervous, day in the USA a good one. When you're travelling on your own, I find it both exciting and nerve wracking, so to see a friendly face when you arrive, makes a massive distance.

My new Chum.



Brent's an Aussie, who's been on many bike adventures and has some interesting bikes in his garage, mostly under wraps.



But there were one or two in view...








Brent's a really nice chap and has some equally lovely friends, one of whom put me up for the night in their home. Honestly, the generosity and hospitality i've received, as a complete stranger to them, has both surprised and humbled me. Thank you guys.

My bed for the first night, complete with some company that kept dabbing me in the face at 0400 in the morning. :hmmmmm

 
Great stuff Rich; your friend has a very nice, dove framed Rocket 3, by the way. Hope you have a great time; and all worth the planning. All the best, enjoy.:beerjug:
 
I left Brent, after a breakfast coffee and muffin, which took a while as Alameda was gearing up for it's annual 4th July Parade. I was early and was heading for Reno, so only saw a little of what was going on. The Americans appear to really go for it when celebrating the 04th July and it's a big, colourful experience.











And then it was off to Reno, where Autolycos had invited me in for a slow cooked brisket. Armed with some warm beer, I duly arrived and was warmly welcomed into his home, where he had some neighbours round. I did try to get a reasonable selfie in, but there was a water mister going on and the bright sun meant i couldn't see the screen.
We all had a great time, with me being the butt of all the jokes , it being the 04th of July, but I heroically took it all on the chin and gave as much back. After that, we were then invited down to their friends, further down in the valley, as they'd cooked far too much BBQ. Many thanks for all your hospitality folks, it was only a one night stopover, but it was great!

 
05th July and I had a big day, heading over to Midway, as I was stopping off with Flashmo, his super wife Julie and the very friendly, Tiberius. I'll have to leave you guessing on Tiberius, as I doesn't appear I got a photo. After a long day, driving through the Nevada and Utah desserts, I made it to Midway and found myself in an oasis of a valley, surrounded by mountains and followed Waze to me destination for the night. Jason's place is up on the hill, looking over the valley and is in an amazing spot. The BBQ was in warm up mode and we had a super supper of chicken, corn and salad, which all went down rather nicely.
I must say, i've not known what to expect from the tent space thread, but it's very quickly become a big part of the early part of my trip. I didn't expect to be staying over with Advrider people, but i'm so glad I have, as it's really become something special and i'm meeting and making many new friends.

The view form the barn.

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My lovely hosts



and just around the corner was this view...

 
Great stuff, Reno is my old stomping ground better than LV.
Your US time suits my late night routine.
 
Well folks, I was in Denver, stopping over with a fellow Advrider for a couple of nights. Arrived armed with cool beer this time, only to find out my hosts are teetotal! :D
I was given the royal treatment again, we chatted bikes, gear and other stuff and had a super meal in the evening. The next day I headed up to Guerrilla Gravity, the guys who made my mountain bike and it's a great little Aladdin's Cave of a workshop. My hosts were off on a weekend camping trail riding adventure and left me in charge for the night and then I moseyed my way north, via Apex Trail Park and on into the mountains for my next night's stop-over.

Genius at work...



and another.



Marvels of engineering.



The team.



My hosts in Denver ride proper bikes!



Chris showed me these soft panniers and they are the mutts nuts. If I ever need some new panniers, i'd probably buy these.



Chris & Stacie, top couple.



Then it was up not the mountains, for a bit of cooler air and a ride.

I met Eric, the local Ranger at Apex and he was interested in my bike. Being a similar height he was having the same problems finding something he fitted. I sent him out for a little spin and he was well chuffed, even more so when I told him the company was local!

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Another mug shot.

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I got a photo of the lovely flowers today.

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My mountain hosts, Vic & Hannah. They're soon off to Alaska, to finish off a ride they started a while back, but Vic came off and banged himself up pretty badly and now it's time to get back there. It's even possible we may pass on the road. They've got this super cabin in the mountains and i'm sat here, typing this and finding it a struggle to move on.

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Your selfies don`t make you look any more handsome do they? Thank heavens for your hosts! :aidan
Seriously, have a great time, and we might still meet up in Alaska after all. :thumb
Here`s watching.
Brian
 
Met this lovely old boy at Vic and Hannahs



Who had this whipper snapper for company



Along with his adventure bikes, Vic has a few other rattly, old, noisy, Italian steeds in his garage.



The proud owner



Look, I fit. maybe i'll buy one!




Short and sweet today as I dd a couple of rides on my mountain bike, then headed into Boulder to meet up with Zigy. He's an Italian born American and thoroughly nice chap. He's also a mine of information, due to being a seasoned two wheeled traveller, and has imparted some useful travel info for our Alaksa trip and my NZ one next year. I really liked Zigy's home, comfy, stylish, homely and interesting, but the bears in the back garden take some getting used to. We went to one of Boulders craft breweries for supper and went to look for some Buffalo roaming in Z's jeep.

The man himself. Apologies for the crap photo Z, i'll be reading your taking pictures guide.



An early wander in Boulder.... very nice.

 
Following a couple of days of 'tech' problems.... I have camera charging and laptop charging issues along with my phone not accepting text messages and telling me I have signal when in actual fact I don't. How we all got around before these little devices is rather quite amazing as it's like having your hands hoped off when they don't function.

Anyhow, a few pictures to catch up as i'm now in Lodi, have a super, well travelled, friendly host, wifi and power!

I headed down to Salida, from Zigy's in Boulder, to meet up with Robert (Blues Bob) and his lovely wife Scarlett. I must have picked the back way into Salida as the bit I rode through was rather run down and decrepit looking. However, I was given a full tour later that evening and the old town is really nice. It's different to Boulder, but equally as nice in it's own way.

The timing of my stay allowed me to meet up with Bob's breakfast club, who are all a great bunch of guys. Surprisingly, not one of them was native born in Salida, all having moved there.



Then, the reason for my travels through...The Monarch Crest!



Big views on this trail, 42 miles and over 12000ft.













My super hosts, Bob & Scarlett



The other good timing of my visit was that I was able to attend a post ride Margherita Restaurant night with some more of their friends. 2 for 1 on the margarita's and a superb pizza saw the evening off nicely.







 
Due to my Tech problems needing resolving, I was away late so decided to head for Gunnison and heads up the 401 Loop out of Crested Butte. Took a couple of photo's as I had a brief spell of reasonable weather before the rain came down. Typical of it to rain, as i'd camped.:permazot

However, the late start to summer meant the flowers were out all over the place, putting on a great show.







 
Leaving Gunnison, I was headed back over Utah and Nevada on HW50, known as The Lonliest Road, to Ely, the most remote town in the lower 48. Raebear lives in Ely. He's nurse at the local hospital and was on call, so beer for Ray! I took him out for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and we had a great meal, and Ray offered some history on the town of Ely.
Back in the day, it was a very prosperous town, due to having the world's largest open cast copper mine and on site smelter. Unfortunately, for the town, the thicko greenies campaigned to get the smelter close due to pollution. So, the ore is now mined, trucked to the coast, then shipped to China and smelted in a plant that's nowhere near as clean and efficient as the one they closed. How the hell that's supposed to be environmentally friendly, with all those trucking/ and shipping miles added on is beyond me. Blooming Greenies... shoot em! :jack

On the way there, I stopped at Grand Junction for my first diner experience, where these lovely ladies served me a tradition breakfast with grits, followed by a stack of blueberry pancakes.



Due to Ray being on call and on shift, I didn't get an opportunity to grab a photo of us, so this chap will have to stand in his place.



Most of Utah and Nevada look like this, which isn't my cup of tea, but even so, HW50's a much nicer trip than I80.





Plenty of this salty stuff too.



There's loads of lovely old trucks in the US. On leaving Ely, I spotted this one.

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Following my exit from Ely, my planned stop in Truckee ended up looking like it wasn't going to happen, so I looked for some campsites around Tahoe. I couldn't of picked a worse weekend for this, as there was some big shin-ding for the rich and mighty celebrity sports set, so everywhere was booked. Couple this with my tech woes and bugger all signal on The Lonliest Road, and I was hunting Micky D's for some free wifi. I duly found some and got a couple of emails out to Sean, Stu and James, down Tahoe way. James was headed out, but said I could stop by and Sean said h e had a houseful, but to call by and he'd squeeze me in. Poor old Stu, I didn't get his message, and when I did, he didn't get my reply. My apologies to those people my phone's let down by not delivering messages. My huge thanks to Sean, for allowing me to join his High School Chums for a meal, chinwag and a night in his garage, that was a huge help and it was great to meet your friends.

This was my bedside company for the night.



Sean and his lovely wife and super friends.

 
Right, i'm still here, been on the road a few days and all these friendly Americans' I keep meeting are taking up my trip report time, so i'm running a couple of short mileage days to give me some time to upload photo's and do some writing. I'm on the bike - more on that later - but here's a bit of a catch up.

Following on from my stay in Auburn, I headed back up to Truckee and commenced a run round the South side of Lake Tahoe. It appears I also missed out on the chance to get another mountain bike ride in, as I called in at Stu's place in Foresthill, but he was out. I left a note to say i'd called by and he got back to me later, saying he'd been out on his mountain bike! Oh, well, maybe another time.:D

Tahoe was crazy busy, as there was this big celebrity love-in going on, and I was still in the hire car, so I didn't bother stopping and just drove through. On way way, I spotted these guys, so called in for a bit f a professional chinwag.









After putting the world straight, and finding out the US Gov't is treating their Firemen the same as our UK members i.e. shafting our pensions and other similarities (albeit they do get paid a fair chunk more than I did) I continued down the road, to Lodi, and my next stop for the night.

I was staying with Doug and Janet and Doug's quite the character, with a wealth of biking and constructional experience. Doug's into his wine, and has quite the special back garden, and he took me out for a little wine sampling at a local winery he's done a fair chunk of constructional work for. It was quite the experience, and it was nice to see a great collection of American antique furniture, and also chat to the owner for some first hand knowledge and experience. We then went out to grab a bite in a local bar, where I had a rather spiffing Jambalaya and then Doug took me down to the local A&W for a root beer float, my first one. For the history buff, Lodi is the birth place of A&W, where root beer was created. The local store has loads of memorabilia, including a long shelf of all the different serving cups from over the years. If I remember, it was invented in 1912. Doug, please feel free to correct me on this.
Root beer's interesting. It made me think of when I was a kid at the dentist's and was having a tooth extracted. The taste reminded me of the smell of the operating room at the Dentist's. With an iceceam float on, it was rather nice.



The Holckster!






We headed back for an early night and I had a leisurely start in the morning, so had time for Doug to provide me with loads of info on Alaska. If anyone's in the Lodi area, I suggest looking him up as he and Janet are a great couple, well travelled and have many a story to tell.

Doug's back garden



My super hosts, Doug and Janet

 
Hook line and sinker, top lip, you've caught me :thumb

It's a long way from Dent .... have a fabulous trip, enjoy, ride safe .... and keep the reports and photos coming Rich :thumb

:beerjug:
 
Woohoo, my bike arrived. I've stayed a couple of nights with Brent, in his man cave and will shortly be heading ooop north. However, I dd encounter a few problems, only minor, so no real issues.
First was getting the bike out of Customs. Good old James Cargo sent me over with the wrong form for the bike. The one they provided was for if you were going to the DMV and registering the bike for the US. Also, they told both Mark and I to go to Customs first, which we duly did, only to be told we needed the release form from the shipper. Poor old Mark had to trudge from one end of Boston to the other in order to achieve this, but I had the Customs Office, the Virgin Cargo Office and, fortunately for me, the Post Office all in a short walking distance from each other. I needed the latter as i'd been told to pay the fee by cash, only to be told by Virgin that they only accepted Money Orders. Anyhow, I got the bike and rode back to Alameda.
The next hassle was my magsafe charger packing up, so a ride to Apple ensued for a replacement. Then I had to get a new puncture kit, as JC had removed my tiny tubes of rubber cement from the bike before shipping. Got to be careful you know, that tiny tube could blow up the plane.:augie

I wonder what's in this box...



These chaps gave me a hand to unpack.



On the way back I spotted this. Last time I remember seeing something like this was on Breaking Bad



On my last day in Alameda, I headed for the former Navy Ship Yard. It's a massive place, opened in aid of the American War effort. There's still an old aircraft carrier there you can look round, along with some ships that were built, mothballed and have stayed moored there ever since.
Brent was saying the site's not likely to stay this way much longer, with house prices sky rocketing in The Bay Area, it'll end up being built on.





The big cranes you see on the ships are for when (if) the ships have to head into a smaller port that doesn't have any crane facilities, so they're completely self sufficient in their needs for loading and unloading.





These huge hangers have doors that opened up fully to take in the big flying boats that were stationed here.



Then it was on my way to Alaska, over the Bay Bridge, which is always crazy busy with massive queues, but I was on the bike and filtered my way up front with relative ease.



and over the Bay Bridge we go. (One for the Mike O fans, there'll be a barn later :D



and into a Karl Malden moment, on The Streets Of San Francisco.



Then it was over The Golden Gate and, mostly fortunate for me, the mist had mainly cleared, so I got an ok shot.



Then along some nicely surfaced roads, heading for the coast.



Which I duly found.



There were a few closed sections and quite a few delays due to wash outs from the harsh winter they've experienced this last year.



But the delays were worth it.

 


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